Khmer Rouge

The Khmer Rouge was a political movement in Cambodia that existed from 1968 to 1996. Led by Pol Pot and the Communist Party of Kampuchea, the Khmer Rouge was allied to North Vietnam and the Viet Cong during the Cambodian Civil War and the Vietnam War, with Pol Pot, Ieng Sary, Nuon Chea, Son Sen, and Khieu Samphan being leaders of the group. From 1975 to 1979 it was the ruling party of the Democratic Kampuchea government, but it was overthrown in the Cambodian-Vietnamese War when Vietnam invaded the country and overthrew the pro-China government in 1979. From 1979 to 1996, the Khmer Rouge waged a guerrilla war against the Vietnamese People's Army from camps in Thailand and from within Cambodia, but in 1996 they surrendered to the Cambodian government, with its leaders being arrested and many being tried for war crimes.